Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Hines

Today we celebrated Christmas with Brian's family.  Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Marie, and Uncle Richard all came to visit.  The kids got lots of gifts including a trampoline which they are SO excited about trying out when Daddy gets it put together.  We feel so fortunate to have such an awesome family.





We love our new PJs, Aunt Marie!  :-)

'Twas the weekend before Christmas

So I had the grand idea of trying to get some cute pictures of the kids all dressed up in their Christmas attire before church this morning.  Can I just tell you that getting four children to:
1.  Be still
2.  Look at the camera
3.  Smile (and not a fake smile or a goofy smile)
is difficult challenging impossible.

I sounded a little like this:
"Caleb, smile!"
"Rayna, sit back down!"
"Aimee, put your gum back in your mouth."
"Rayna, sit back down! "
"Molly, give Mommy a real smile!  Let me see your teeth!"
"Rayna, sit back down!"
"No, Caleb, keep looking at the camera!"
"Rayna!  Look at Mommy!  Sit back down!"
"Aimee, I will take care of Rayna, you look at the camera!"
So here are my cute (but definitely not perfect) pictures from this morning:



Caleb, Aimee, and Molly all sang at church this morning.  Aimee was an angel and she was SO excited about it.  When I picked her up after children's church, she was still in her angel costume.  Her teacher said she couldn't get her to take it off.  :-)



Rayna can't wait until she is big enough to sing with the other kids!


In other news, Caleb started guitar lessons this weekend.  Caleb has a lot of natural talent in music.  He is taking the recorder as part of his fifth grade music curriculum, and he has just excelled at it.  He prints off music to songs he wants to learn to play and teaches himself.  To someone like me (with no musical talent), it's quite remarkable.  Thanks to one of my students' parents, Caleb has been given the opportunity to start guitar lessons.  Brian took him on Saturday and said that he did a great job.  He brought home a guitar and has been practicing all weekend.  I think this is going to be such a good experience for him.

Deck the Halls!